Greetings Bridge Friends,

With our last five Polling You episodes running close to 3 hours of video each with over a dozen hands, BridgeHands will begin a trial, offering interim “Extra” lessons on a regular basis between our pithy, full length episodes.

Polling You #79 Extra 1a

♠ A 5 4♥ Q 9 7 2♦ K J
♣ K 7 6 3

♠ —♥ —♦ —
♣ —

N

W

E

S

♠ —♥ —♦ —
♣ —

♠ K Q 10 9 8 6♥ A 4♦ Q 10
♣ A Q 2

After North opens 1 Club, as you will recall from our lesson on Suit Quality and Losing Trick Count, South should consider making a Strong Jump Shift. In this extra episode we will explore the follow-up bidding, defense and learn how to boost your odds when faced with a challenging contract. After play, we will re-arrange the East-West hands to ensure you are following the best line of declarer play with bad splits.

The remainder of this lesson (and associated videos) is available for Premium and ULTRA members.

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Thank you for tuning in to our first extra interim Polling You lesson. BridgeHands appreciates your interest and support.

Comments

For some unknown reason, I have missed Many ,many notices from you. Is there a place on the site where I can go back to receive information conerning certain helps that I have need of? Example: in rubber bridge, a response to a 2 bid (strong) from your partner when you only have 5 to 6 points in your hand….????
Thanks! Betty Guess

Hello Betty,
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Sorry you haven’t been seeing some of our EMAILs from us – perhaps your “spam filter” is the culprit. You can always drop by our site and double check our “Polling You Index” to review a summary of past episodes. Here’s the link:
.http://www.bridgehands.com/bridgeblog/?page_id=540
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When partner opens a strong 2 Clubs, with 5-6 points it’s best to make an artificial 2 Diamond “waiting” call. This allows you to learn more about your partner’s hand – shape and strength. For instance, if you held an outside Ace, a singleton and Queen-third or longer in your partner’s major suit you would be excited to explore slam. Otherwise, with so-so spread values and 3 card support in the major you would rebid 4S/H, and lacking a combined 8 card major suit you’ll be heading for 3 Notrump (hopefully partner will first bid Notrump). By the way, if you’re partner is an astute Rubber Bridge player and the auction begins like this:
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2C – 2D;
2N – ?
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… then at this point “systems are on,” meaning your 3C bid is Stayman showing a 4 card major and if you bid 3 Diamonds or 3 Hearts that would be Jacoby Transfer bids transferring partner to the next higher ranking suit. After all, when your partner holds a huge hand you want pard to play it rather than have the opponents see all those gorgeous honors!
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Warm Regards, Michael